22-year "Amazonian" - Jay Marine, VP Prime Video and Global Head of Sports & Advertising
NY Icons hosted another fantastic event with Jay Marine, Vice President of Prime Video and Global Head of Sports & Advertising at Amazon 🔥 🚀 I was especially excited to host Jay—not just because he’s a 22-year “Amazonian” who has seen Amazon evolve into the giant it is today, but also because Amazon has genuinely made my life better, easier… and maybe a little lazier too! 😆
It is a true honor to be able to meet people like Jay, hear their stories firsthand and ask questions. Thought I’d share a few (among many other) takeaways from the dinner:
🧩 Create dedicated teams for new products – a separate team ensures focus, efficiency, and innovation.
🤹♀️ Push beyond familiar territory – growth comes from challenging assumptions and exploring new opportunities. Acquire more skills, do not limited yourself to current skills.
⚠️ Missed opportunities can be costly – always stay alert to emerging possibilities.
📍 Startups succeed by aligning people and purpose – building a strong, collaborative culture is key.
💡 Foster a startup mindset, even in large organizations – a universally entrepreneurial culture drives agility and innovation.
🔎 Ditch PowerPoint – focus on substance and meaningful discussions instead of slides.
📈 Adaptability is essential – be open to change and willing to pivot when needed.
🚀 Leaders should actively manage and contribute – great managers do more than oversee; they participate.
📖 Disruption comes from small, passionate teams – innovation thrives in focused, mission-driven groups.
🗝️ Fix problems at their root – offering concessions isn’t enough; the defect must be resolved.
💣 Errors are learning opportunities – a culture that embraces mistakes as growth leads to true innovation.
💊 Key leadership principles: Prioritize customer obsession over competitor focus. Foster a culture that embraces innovation and accepts failure as part of progress. Maintain long-term discipline and focus.
⚡ Be agile in decision-making – adapt quickly when circumstances change.
🪐 Encourage continuous ideation – empower employees to think creatively and take ownership of ideas.
👓 Great ideas come from the ground up – flat organizations encourage innovation and agility.
❓ Low prices are easy; maintaining them is hard.
🍕 Keep teams small and agile – a team shouldn’t be so large that it needs more than two pizzas to be fed.
Huge thanks to one of our own - Diana Nassar - for the introduction! 🫶 And to Airi Hammalov at Baker McKenzie and Mark Minehart and Christopher Fallon at EffectiveSoft for all of their support and for making these events possible!
And, as always, shoutout to my bestie – Ben Gusberg 💙 and our amazing NY Icons community for showing up and making these events so interesting!
A forever Amazon fan – Gwen 😉
Veni Dhir Michael Chow Michael Gummelt Maya Dhir Valeriia Verkhovykh Jenna Shapiro Asli Gulcur Geordie Stewart Mehak Dinesh Sonny Vo Albert Rodriguez Marcos Casal Frederico Padilha Yan Ji
